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Editor’s note: Each issue of the Influential Women enewsletter will feature a profile of one of the Business Journal’s reigning Top Women Owned Businesses finalists. The profile first appeared in the event program.

Janice Vanderbilt sets goals. Then she meets — or exceeds — them.

In 2007, the president of Vanderbilt CPA Group in Grand Rapids set a goal of quadrupling gross sales receipts in the first five years of business. Mission accomplished.

Now, she has her sights set on giving other women business owners a boost.

“My goal was to help women start businesses, promote women in business and educate and encourage women to be entrepreneurs,” Vanderbilt said. “If I can do it, they can do it, as well. I am passionate about my business and pursuing my goals relentlessly.”

While she may be relentless, Vanderbilt also understands the value of listening to sound advice and using all available means to build a successful enterprise.

She participated in the Blast Count Me In Business Accelerator Program, which is sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and designed to create “million-dollar businesses.”

“I understand the significance of the Business Accelerator Program, and I desire to help more women become million-dollar business owners,” Vanderbilt said.

But life is not all about business for Vanderbilt.

She’s served as treasurer for Family Crossroads, a nonprofit dedicated to children with special needs and their families.

Family Crossroads provides low-cost assistive technology devices, such as an iPad, to help children and families with communication for academic and social needs.

Vanderbilt CPA Group was nominated as a Top Women Owned Business in the $1.49 million and under annual revenue category.

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About GRBJ

Since 1983, the Grand Rapids Business Journal has been West Michigan's primary and most-trusted source of local business news. The weekly print edition of the Business Journal, a must-read for the area’s top decision-makers, is known as the business newspaper of metro Grand Rapids, Holland, Muskegon and all of West Michigan.

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